As it prepares for UConn, Harvard reaching new heights

Updated 12:39 am, Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Martin Kessler calls himself a lifelong Harvard basketball fan, but that label comes with a small asterisk.

"March Madness and Harvard were two separate things," Kessler said. "You had Harvard, and then you had your real team, a team that actually had a chance to do well."

Kessler, who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and attended Harvard games with his father since he was 5 years old, is now a beat writer for The Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper. He's been a first-hand witness to the radical, unpredictable transformation that the men's basketball program has undergone since Tommy Amaker was named head coach.

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"If you wanted to see a Harvard basketball team win, you had to go to the women's games," Kessler said. "I remember going to the (Boston College versus Harvard) game six or seven years ago, and it just seemed like this impossible task (for Harvard)."

Fast-forward to today and the Crimson have beaten its cross-town rival in three consecutive meetings. When the two teams play on Dec. 29, there's a chance Harvard could be 11-0. Of course, it will have to get by No. 9 UConn before it worries about BC.

Harvard (8-0) enters Thursday's matchup at Gampel Pavilion ranked in both polls for the first time in school history. The Crimson -- not overwhelming favorites UConn or Florida State -- carried the inaugural Battle 4 Atlantis trophy through Nassau Airport a week ago. And, following a 80-70 defeat of Seattle, Harvard became the first Ivy League school to crack the AP Top 25 since 1997-98.

So how did it get here?

A brief history lesson on the Crimson: In 1945-46, Harvard went 19-3 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, which consisted of eight teams. Harvard lost to Ohio State in the first round and was defeated by NYU in the third-place game.

Outside of that one season, the program toiled in obscurity long before either Kessler or his father attended the school. Harvard's basketball team has existed since 1901, and it never had a 20-win season until 2009-10. Aside from that powerhouse squad in 1945-46, no Harvard team has ever made the NCAA Tournament.

No Harvard team has ever won the Ivy League outright (Dartmouth took the crown in '46). In fact, the Crimson's berth in the 2010 collegeinsider.com tournament -- a step below the NIT -- ended a 64-year postseason tournament drought.

And that's the way it went for nearly a century: Harvard was one of the world's most prestigious universities and, in turn, one of the world's worst college basketball programs.

It all changed when Amaker took over as coach in 2007.

Amaker's foundation for success -- Harvard has posted 20-plus wins for two straight years and is on the fast-track for a third -- has been pretty simple: He's getting better players.

"He's been really successful as a coach, but (at Duke) he was a really successful player, too -- and that's important," said Harvard sophomore shooting guard Laurant Rivard. "We built a good relationship (in the recruiting process)."

Rivard held offers from close to 15 different schools -- including established mid-majors Davidson and George Washington -- before deciding on Harvard.

"It was the best place because it's a great school and I wanted to be able to play early in my career," said Rivard, averaging 11 points per game off the bench.

And, perhaps even more impressive, Amaker's 2011 recruiting class is highlighted by swingman Wesley Saunders and center Kenyatta Smith, who respectively spurned USC and Vanderbilt to come to Cambridge.

But, before Amaker started to compete with the power conferences, a 6-foot-3 gift by the name of Jeremy Lin fell into his lap. Lin never received a Division I scholarship offer -- he was asked to walk-on at several Pac-10 schools -- so he headed east. He burst onto the national scene with a 30-point performance against UConn at Gampel Pavilion nearly two years ago to the day and, a year later, he became the first Harvard player since 1953 to make the NBA.

He was also key in jump-starting a hoops tradition that, quite frankly, never existed until a few years ago.

Not even on-campus.As Kessler will tell you, getting Harvard students interested in sports is a chore. It certainly isn't UConn, where students discuss the basketball team on a daily basis. With each passing year, though, the students (and faculty) at Harvard have become a bit more intrigued.

"I was in a class that had maybe five or six basketball players -- it was like a 300-person lecture," Kessler said. "And the professor sent an email to the entire class congratulating Harvard basketball for winning the Ivy League championship. That was something I've definitely never seen before. Professors talking about athletics never happens at Harvard."

Well, never say never. It took over 100 years, but people like Kessler no longer need a secondary team.Harvard basketball is officially for real.